Forum: Author Hangout

Copyright Notice

In a recent thread we mentioned copyright notices and a few people have spoken about how they vary. Thus I thought to start this thread to mention my copyright notice, because it isn't what you normally see, and why I have it that way.

First is the whole notice as I have it now, then information about some of the sections. This is from my last completed book.

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental. All rights reserved by the author, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.

Product names, brands, and other trademarks referred to within this book are the property of their respective trademark holders. Unless otherwise specified, no association between the author and any trademark holders is expressed or implied. Nor does it express any endorsement by them, or of them. Use of a term in this book should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark, service mark, or registered trademark.

Cover Art

The background images are Fall in the mountains by Gila National Forest and Bill Williams River at Southern end of Lake Havasu in Arizona by John Menard, both are used with permission under Creative Commons Attribution. The trimming and adding of text is by Ernest Bywater. All rights to the cover image are reserved by the copyright owners.

29 December 2015 Edition

Published by www.lulu.com

ISBN:

end quote

Naturally I start with the title, the copyright year, and my author name (my name in this case but could be a pen name). this is for clear identification purposes.

I also end it with the date of the current Edition, the name of the publisher, and the ISBN (if I have one).this is for clear identification purposes too.

In between are the arse protection clauses.

The first paragraph is the same as what you commonly see in the front of print books.

The second paragraph to to allow me to get away with using the names of various products and store in a general way. Note: this is not and ironclad protection from the companies if they do want to go after you, but it does establish your intent not to cause them harm if you end up in court. And that intent can save your arse in some situations.

The third paragraph is about the cover art. This acknowledges where the basic images come from and what I've done with them. Part of this is a legal requirement with some images under the Creative Commons Copyright and part of it is just to be nice about where it's from when it's a public domain image. This is more arse protection and a way of establishing your intent as being honest about things. It also helps me to remember where I got the damn images from for use in a later work.

Some print books mention the source of the cover art and some don't. I prefer to do so. This post is for information and discussion, and you are all free to use as much or as little of the three paragraphs as you wish.

I have read a lot of sci fi and fantasy novels over the years, I have never seen anything like your first paragraph in a traditionally dead tree published book.

The second paragraph is generally unnecessary under US law. Generally speaking you can only violate a trade mark by using it in trade in the same industry for which the mark was granted. Mentioning / using the trade mark in a story whether news or fictional is perfectly legal.

The only exceptions to this is if you present the company / product is such a bad light that you could be deemed to have damaged the company's / product's reputation or if you claim to own the trademark. This is a pretty high hurdle for a company to overcome, particularly for a self published book.

In real life this generally goes the other way around. Far from Hollywood / Big Publishing houses having to get permission to use trade marks, manufactures of consumer goods come begging with offers of money to have there products placed in films and books by highly popular authors.

ETA: On the first paragraph. In the US at least, that sort of disclaimer is generally reserved only for books that are fictional stories loosely based on real events. I generally don't read those kinds of books.

Most of the big publishers have in-house art departments that create the cover art under work for hire, so the publisher owns the art work.

And that reminds me of the other thing I was going to say.

With cover art you have to be very careful where you get the images from and the terms under which you can use them. I've rejected a lot of good images because they didn't allow the use of front covers or back covers - which means I can't use them on books without getting their written permission after paying them for the right.

Also, there are some websites where you can get images for almost anything, but check their terms because some allow the use for any commercial usage except front covers and back covers - that is no book covers at all. Some also allow you to use the images for book covers, but do not allow you to on sell your rights to use the images. Thus you can use their images for making a book cover and sell those books yourself, you can't sell another person the right to use that image when you sell them the right to publish the book.

As you mention, the publishers often use their own artists and own the cover art copyright, thus you can't use it for any independent publications or if you go to another publisher. That's why the cover art for some of the books I have at Lulu are different to the cover art at dpdotcom - where they differ is where dpdotcom own the artwork, but a lot of the artwork at both is my own work and thus legal to use at both.

With cover art you have to be very careful where you get the images from and the terms under which you can use them. I've rejected a lot of good images because they didn't allow the use of front covers or back covers - which means I can't use them on books without getting their written permission after paying them for the right.

Yep, unless you use your own original art, or pay for an explicit license you need to be careful. The cover art is an entirely separate copyright from the text of the book. Even though most dead tree books don't list a copyright for the cover art.

The only exceptions to this is if you present the company / product is such a bad light that you could be deemed to have damaged the company's / product's reputation or if you claim to own the trademark. This is a pretty high hurdle for a company to overcome, particularly for a self published book.

I just wanted to mention. There is one US company with a reputation for going after trade marks on these kinds of grounds, Disney. Mention Disney or any Disney characters in an "Adult" book and you can expect to hear from Disney's lawyers.

I agree with DS about the 'names' issue. That kind of warning is generally only used when you're purposely making fun of someone, such as a satirical book.

Your artwork clause is fine for Creative Commons images, but doesn't apply for anyone else. Most stock image sites list specifically what to include. It usually consists of the title of the artwork, the creator and the site the artwork can be found at. I generally include links to the artwork (in my ebooks) so fans can find it if they're interested. However, I put these credits in my Attributions section.

Finally, it's not recommended to list the "publisher" of your book. As an independent publisher, you're the publisher, and sites like createspace, Amazon, smashwords and lulu are simply resources for distributing and selling them. In fact, many sites expressly forbid you from labeling them in the copyright section (Apple's a pain about this, as they don't want anyone to assume they 'authorized' the work).

Finally, the first two paragraphs are pretty much what most sites suggest you include. The only addition is a warning that readers aren't allowed to lend the book. But since few readers will ever read the copyright page, it's a waste of time.

Finally, it's not recommended to list the "publisher" of your book. As an independent publisher, you're the publisher, and sites like createspace, Amazon, smashwords and lulu are simply resources for distributing and selling them.

The advice I've gotten on this varies with the source. However, officially the ISBNs are issued to Publishers so if you get them through a source, and not direct, then you should list that source as the Publisher just to keep the official records balanced.

Amazon won't allow you to list it as the publisher, smashwords says not to, but doesn't care if you do. Apple goes farther, though. If you mention "Apple" anywhere in the front matter, they'll reject the book, saying they never authorized the book. (I often label each ebook version I create, and like to know which book is which. I've taken to labeling the books I produce for Apple as my "iFruit" books. I'm sure they'll complain about that in time."

Damn, it only took 10 posts to hit Thread Drift Warp Factor Ludicrous Speed - I thought a thread was supposed to be reasonably good until about the fortieth or fiftieth post started the drift to go so wide.

Thread drift isn't bad, as long as it returns to the original idea (the reason why people turn to the thread in the first place). I think the whole "he said" discussion was much worse, as the conversation degenerated into a "Yes it is"/"No it isn't" argument, which went nowhere and which no one wanted to read.

What's bad, though, is when a series of bad jokes reduces the conversation to nonsense that drones on incessantly. It's cute for the first couple times, but tires quickly.

But then, there's only so much you can really say about copyright notices.

I had a question when I read that each posting here was copyrighted by its author. We are copying some or most of some postings to reply to it. Aren't we violating copyright? Or is there some permission given to make partial copies when making a discussion?

I had a question when I read that each posting here was copyrighted by its author. We are copying some or most of some postings to reply to it. Aren't we violating copyright? Or is there some permission given to make partial copies when making a discussion?

By posting story components, you're proving you were working on a given story at a particular date, which helps establish copyright. If another author here incorporated the text into their own stories, copyright would apply and you could sue them. It's more protection than threat of 'fair use'.

I had a question when I read that each posting here was copyrighted by its author. We are copying some or most of some postings to reply to it. Aren't we violating copyright?

Technically, you are copying it just by looking at it. However, your concerns are covered by implied licenses and fair use.

Even if someone wanted to make trouble (in the US), without a registered copyright they can only get actual damages, the problem with this is of course that the market value of a post to a public or semi-public forum is basically $0.00

Even if someone wanted to make trouble (in the US), without a registered copyright they can only get actual damages, the problem with this is of course that the market value of a post to a public or semi-public forum is basically $0.00

That depends. If someone takes a plot idea, and uses quotes from a story that you're working on, and then goes on to publish a book which sells a gazillion copies, then the "market value" is based on their sales, not on the value of the words on a forum site. A copyright suit would attempt to recover the lost sales "market value lost".

That depends. If someone takes a plot idea, and uses quotes from a story that you're working on, and then goes on to publish a book which sells a gazillion copies, then the "market value" is based on their sales, not on the value of the words on a forum site. A copyright suit would attempt to recover the lost sales "market value lost".

They're both covered by copyright protection, but there's more inherent value in a stolen story than there is in another internet rant. We discuss a lot of story ideas here. After all, someone might run off with my James Bond story idea (cough, cough, Aubie). ;D